The covalent coupling of two or more moieties has many applications within chemistry and biochemistry. When chemical coupling methods are employed, the reaction rate between moieties is dependent upon the concentrations of the moieties available to react. If the concentration of moieties is low, then the reaction rate may be rate limited by the moiety concentration. For many applications the concentration of moieties may be low, it is therefore desirable to produce methods that enhance the rate or reaction (or alternatively, methods that lower the concentration of moieties required).
It is well known that certain molecules, or collections of molecules, can be made to self assemble to form larger, more complex structures, examples of these include: DNA, proteins, lipids, liquid crystals, polymers etc. The molecular components of these species often have a very high affinity for each other and self assemble in low concentration. A drawback to self-assembling systems is that they often aggregate through non-covalent interactions and therefore have limited stability.